Marco Rubio jumps into birth control dispute

Amid growing rancor between the Catholic hierarchy and the White House, Republican rising star Sen. Marco Rubio is pushing a bill that takes a swipe at the Obama administration’s stance on expanding access to birth control.

The Florida senator, widely considered on the short list for the GOP vice presidential pick, introduced legislation Tuesday that would vastly expand the ability of religious or faith-based employers to opt out of a health reform law requirement that health plans cover all FDA-approved contraceptives without any co-pay.

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The administration had offered a narrow exemption to religious organizations, which the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops said was unacceptable. They were not mollified when the administration gave other religious group, such as a religiously affiliated hospitals or charities, an extra year — until August 2013 — to comply with the requirement.

Rubio’s bill would allow individuals to take a conscience exemption and not offer the benefit to workers. The administration has defined access to birth control as a basic preventive health service that should be available.

“This is a common-sense bill that simply says the government can’t force religious organizations to abandon the fundamental tenets of their faith because the government says so,” Rubio said in a statement.

The controversy is part of a broader rift between Catholics and President Barack Obama. Polls show that he has seen his support among Catholics drop by 10 points, a harsh turnaround since winning the Catholic vote over John McCain by a 54-to-45 percent margin in 2008.

HHS has said health plans should include the benefits so women aren’t prevented from receiving birth control because of “expensive co-pays or deductibles, or because an insurance plan doesn’t include contraceptive services.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:15 a.m. on January 31, 2012.

They don't have an answer to deficits (if you don't let them throw nanny under the bus), They don't have a solution to unemployment other than giving more taxcuts to the richest, They don't have anything left on foreign policy after the Iraq blunder... But the moment a tiny sliver of a wedge issue comes up, the GOP losers jump on it to make the most of it. Rubio or crapio, they are all the same!

What's wrong with offering birth control? This helps to avoid abortions and doesnt cost as much (financially and emotionally). And blanket refusal to prescribe or offer birth control because of beliefs even though the recipients would pay for it themselves?

What's next?

You cant prescribe birth control because it is against your personal religion

You can administer blood transfusion because it is against your personal religion (Jehovah Witness).

Since religion is not a static point amongst humans, anyone can pretty much come up with something against their beliefs that makes them not administer some health service to the public.

Rubio is good at pandering. Another ambitious political hack. When we should be focusing on jobs.

This was the same guy that lied and said he was a refugee when he was clearly NOT. Just because the press keeps proclaiming him a rising star. And lifting him up unduly. Even without still any accomplishments in Senate except for birth control measures and using the tea party to power while declaring he's not one of them, and pandering to Romney to get a VP spot. #nakedambitionwithnointerestinthepeople

The religious institutions Rubio speaks of are also corporations. Corporations are not churches. These "conscious exemption" arguments are really claims of special rights.

If these hospitals, which are Catholic in name only, want the rights of churches....they should abandon their status as corporations and exist as part of the church they represent. Any bill like this would be the opposite of "common sense".

These institutions should decide if they're church or state and not try to claim the benefits of being both without the responsibilities that attach to each.

Wow. So much for the separation of church and state. The government tells a religious organization that they are mandated to provide a service that they object to on religious grounds, and all of the happy little statists jump on board. Why exactly is the government providing birth control anyway? Responsible adults can find the nearest convenience store and buy a condom.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -CS Lewis

I suppose that next the government will be demanding that Catholic hospitals provide abortion services for free, too.

What a joke. 70% + of American Catholics are ALREADY using birth control of one form or another. The only Catholics who actually listen to the Vatican on this are the ones whose ovaries are already dried up.

Is Rubio intentionally trying to torpedo his chances of becoming vice-president? When you are as close to a vice-presidential nomination as he is currently, you do not, I repeat DO NOT, make waves over issues that don't matter to a majority of Americans. I don't know when Republicans are going to learn that social issues are a losing battle in a general election. Dubya was re-elected due to the gay marriage controversy in 2004, and you see where that got the country. There is no way we the people will go back down that road again, and you can take that to the bank. Rubio needs to bide his time and try to find a plausible excuse as to why he lied about his family's "immigration" to America.

Let's just get rid of the First Amendment wholly so we won't have these disputes in the future. The Government is slowly becoming our God, Lord, and Master. This is becoming a typical example of government oppressive power growing under the fraudulent guise of doing noble deeds.

First dictate to citizens that they must buy a certain product--then make that productit morally reprehensible to a large segment of the population.

Didn't the 20th Century teach us anything about the stark dangers of exploding government power and its inevitable results from deadly Soviet Power in Russia to bloody Communist Power in China (and a long list of similar government power horror shows). Our wise and prophetic Founding Fathers rightly saw the greatest threats to human lifeand liberty coming from government diktats. We ignore them at our peril.

In fact, many historians not necessarily sympathetic to Christian churches argue that our freedoms in the west came in under the umbrella of the Church struggling to maintain its positions and morals in disputes such as is going on now over dictatorial Obamacare. .

Let's just get rid of the First Amendment wholly so we won't have these disputes in the future. The Government is slowly becoming our God, Lord, and Master. This is becoming a typical example of government oppressive power growing under the fraudulent guise of doing noble deeds.

First dictate to citizens that they must buy a certain product--then make that productit morally reprehensible to a large segment of the population.

Didn't the 20th Century teach us anything about the stark dangers of exploding government power and its inevitable results from deadly Soviet Power in Russia to bloody Communist Power in China (and a long list of similar government power horror shows). Our wise and prophetic Founding Fathers rightly saw the greatest threats to human lifeand liberty coming from government diktats. We ignore them at our peril.

In fact, many historians not necessarily sympathetic to Christian churches argue that our freedoms in the west came in under the umbrella of the Church struggling to maintain its positions and morals in disputes such as is going on now over dictatorial Obamacare. .

I'll bet he isn't discouraging those same health care plans from covering Viagra. Can't cover birth control for women (even older, married women with several children) but for sure those health careplans can cover Viagra.

Let's just get rid of the First Amendment wholly so we won't have these disputes in the future. The Government is slowly becoming our God, Lord, and Master. This is becoming a typical example of government oppressive power growing under the fraudulent guise of doing noble deeds.

First dictate to citizens that they must buy a certain product--then make that productit morally reprehensible to a large segment of the population.

Didn't the 20th Century teach us anything about the stark dangers of exploding government power and its inevitable results from deadly Soviet Power in Russia to bloody Communist Power in China (and a long list of similar government power horror shows). Our wise and prophetic Founding Fathers rightly saw the greatest threats to human lifeand liberty coming from government diktats. We ignore them at our peril.

In fact, many historians not necessarily sympathetic to Christian churches argue that our freedoms in the west came in under the umbrella of the Church struggling to maintain its positions and morals in disputes such as is going on now over dictatorial Obamacare. .

I'll bet he isn't discouraging those same health care plans from covering Viagra. Can't cover birth control for women (even older, married women with several children) but for sure those health careplans can cover Viagra